In the musical “A New Brain,” Gordon Schwinn is a struggling composer whose career has stalled as he attempts to provide inane songs for the children’s television program that employs him. Then: he has a brain-based medical emergency and his greatest fear - dying with his best songs still inside him - comes to confront him. He needs an MRI and then he needs brain surgery. His mother, his partner, his close friend, and a hallucination of his boss, Mr. Bungee, come spend time with him at the hospital, intermingling with the hospital staff whose lives and lessons meld with his recovery.
“A New Brain” was produced off-Broadway in 1998 and an incredible production is currently running on Barrington Stage Company’s Boyd-Quinson Mainstage in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, presented in association with the Williamstown Theatre Festival. The show features music and lyrics by Tony Award winner William Finn and a book by Finn and Tony Award Winner James Lapine. The show is directed at BSC by Joe Calarco. “A New Brain” is inspired by William Finn’s own harrowing experience with an arteriovenous malformation. Finn’s other best-known and most lauded musicals are “Falsettos” and “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee.”
Broadway stars Adam Chanler-Berat and Mary Testa play Gordon Schwinn and The Mother. In the 1998 off-Broadway production, Testa played an integral unhoused character named Lisa.
Adam Chanler-Berat has performed on Broadway in “Saint Joan,” “Amelie,” “Peter and the Starcatcher,” and “Next to Normal.” Mary Testa’s Broadway credits include “Barnum,” “42nd Street,” “Wicked,” “Xanadu,” “Chicago,” and the 2019 Revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein's "Oklahoma," directed by Daniel Fish.
Both actors are making their Barrington Stage debuts with this production.
